Power, Community and Value Lives in Rebellious, Creative Play
A Rebel Poet's Manifesto for sharing noisily, collaborating generously and writing stories that are too good to be brands.
Hello, friends new and old.
Since my last update, I am welcoming some new people into this community, thanks to a note I posted letting out some frustrations about the dominance of marketing gurus in my online feeds.
I don’t know about you, but these days, as I work on submitting a novel and finding a new job, I often feel like I need a marketing degree just to get past the starting blocks. I am torn between the need to constantly gain new skills and simultaneously reduce my experience into a short, digestible tagline.
When I look at my adult life - 20 years across 10 different countries - it sounds like it doesn’t have a plot. Yet, I see a narrative thread, pulling me from place to place: one of belonging, creativity, culture and understanding. But not one I could shape into a rule book for others to follow. More one best explored with a paintbrush and a wide choice of colours.
We all contain these confusing, contradictory multitudes. And if we have been able to live them, then there needs to be space for them in our creative and professional lives, so we can tell stories about who we are and the reality of the world we live in.
I recently started to feel very angry at all this brand advice, because, if I had read it a few years ago, it would have been the sort of ‘help’ that would have stopped me from pressing publish. It would have kept me silent and prevented me from fully engaging in something I love.
I think that these gurus offering quick paths to online success are both right and wrong. They are right, because there are specific ways to create traction online. But they are wrong, because when done without soul, self-discovery or creative wandering, they miss the value for anyone called to creative work. Their advice leads to a destination, which, without the struggle and mess of creation, isn’t really a place many of us want to end up.
Pressing publish on this note, I had one of those moments where you realise you are not as alone as you think you are. I was overjoyed to suddenly find the rallying cries from writers around the world in the replies.
Each time I refreshed, I thought: it is not just me.
Then, after a couple of days, I think the algorithm got bored and my notifications went silent again.
But I wasn’t done. I wanted more rebel poets. More rallying cries. (I am Scottish. It is in the blood or at least the education system). So I went back to read those comments again, because there was something there that I was sure was potent and important and real.
As I reread each individual’s reply, I started to hear a collective voice. And I wondered what it might look like to pull these words together. To write an Artist’s Manifesto so I could remind myself, and anyone else who needed it, of the power, community and value that lives in rebellious, creative play.
In a world which often seems full of advice and perfectly crafted messages, I don’t want to forget that many people want to celebrate the messy human-ness of creative exploration. So, I hope this post will be a reminder that we can support each other as we journey in our creative lives. And that our collaboration has power.
This one is for the rebel poets.
My original Note
The Reply
NB: The following words are not mine, but the choices around alignment and order are.
I sourced these words in the 140 + comments on the above thread. I used a mix of found poetry and methods from designing and capturing participatory dialogues to shape the words of around 50 writers into a part-poem, part-manifesto structure.
I did not use AI tools at any stage of this process.
All original phrases are credited. I have also included the contributors’ names below, where you can see how to add or edit your contribution.
A Collective Manifesto for Rebel Poets
I want to continue to resist doing what I’m told I should do.
People try to shut us up because authenticity is magic. And that’s terrifying to people without creativity and spark.
The online environment and culture we are in punishes creative exploration.
Without openness, risk-taking and explorative enjoyment we cut off a whole load of amazing and - ironically - profitable productions.
We do NOT need their “advice.” Who do they think they are? To hell with them!
We ditch this castrating narrative around “niching down”. We are human. We have multiple interests, concerns, ideas and experiences.
I refuse to “niche down.”
PREACH!! The human experience and art is so much more vast than that!
My intention is to express - not impress.
I write about whatever I want to write about!
I’m a Walmart of ideas.
It’s the brave, the playful, the unfinished voices that make it worth showing up. Someone like me deserves a seat at the table.
Keep going. You’re not noise…. you’re necessary. It’s not a ‘product’. It’s art. It doesn’t need a reason to exist.
Not every voice must be branded to be heard because
every voice matters and sharing is powerful, regardless of audience or purpose.
Art, writing and thinking are fundamentally acts of not knowing. We share the imperfect version because perfection is just another form of silence.
We make space for experiments, for oddness, for things that don’t tick boxes!
We are confident to do this.
I care about the growth of my art, but I won’t optimise the creativity and joy out of it.
Play is sacred. It’s how we reclaim imagination from the market.
I like to think of this platform as a writing playground.
Creativity thrives in play and experimentation.
I love experimenting.
Can’t tell you how many times I re-read my own posts, laughing. I have the best time.
Here’s to playing, experimenting and learning!
I’m in the playing & experimenting category and
there are people here who delight in the seedlings, the half-grown and not yet blooming, who are writing for the joy of being who they are.
It is in that experimenting and learning AND failing that we become bold and brave enough to believe in ourselves, our worth, and our writing.
How is one meant to grow and learn without preparation?
What do you think about when you wake up at 3am?
- messy, alive, human -
I want to know!
Before we master our message, we have to meet our mess.
Sometimes it’s just a heartbeat on a page
You’ve got to keep the creative act alive in yourself.
YES YES AND YES!!
Leave words like a flower at your front door and someone will notice.
I’m here to follow and see how you bloom! ❤️
If we want to continue the encouragement of this exploration, there is a responsibility to actually seek out and engage with these works.
And we can make space for that abundance here. By being generous in our reading, our writing and our sharing of others’ work.
We can reward small artistic posts,
shift our focus from money to culture, arts and education.
Exploration isn’t noise — it’s where authenticity is born.
What’s wrong with making some noise? Most profound human moments happen in that “noise”, in the courage of sharing before you’re ready.
Pointlessly making noise is a hobby of mine.
So let’s make it a joyful noise!
What’s noise to one person may be heartwarming prose to another.
This is music to my ears.
We stretch ourselves, share our stories, see where they land and resonate.
That’s where real connection lives. That’s where growth actually happens.
Some of our best and most profound relationships are forged through these conversations and interactions.
I won’t kneel to those invisible powers. I will continue to produce original content, and I will be enjoying every minute of it. Because I’m intentional. Because I have something to share.
When you make your own rules and trust them, life gets so good. I’m getting better at being in this miracle more of the time!!
We will continue to make our own rules.
Together as Living Beings, we succeed.
We are unstoppable.
Tell Me:
How can we better help and support each other in our desire to create authentically and playfully?
Is it possible to compel the market to see value in playful artistic experimentation through how we use our attention and focus? Would that benefit our art?
How can we harness the knowledge that many others share these opinions, to cultivate personal perseverance and artistic power?
If you would like to contribute to the manifesto, add your suggestions and ideas in the comments.
If you don’t subscribe, that is the easiest way to keep this writer creatively motivated. I write regularly about where the global and personal meet and you can follow along here:
Or you can buy me a coffee here: click to keep this writer warm and inspired.
If you like this collaborative style of writing, check out the Hope Scrapbook, a collective resource which offers a new lens on global challenges from trauma survivors, activists, writers and poets.
And stay tuned, more invitations to creatively collaborate are coming soon.
Attention and curiosity nurture artists and change systems.
How do you want to use yours? You could explore more words from the writers in the Manifesto.
Find them all here:
Notes
I have made a couple of light edits to phrases/removed a few words for coherence.
If you are not happy with how your words are presented here or want to remove them, please send me a DM or drop a comment. I will sort it.
I have tracked and linked words to all original writers, but this was fiddly work and the original thread became very glitchy, so if I have made an error, please let me know!
Sorry if you commented on the original note, and your words are not included here. I had to make some editorial choices to capture what I was creatively interpreting as the collective sentiment of the thread. Hopefully, you feel represented by these words. Feel free to propose additions if not!
I am open to edits on the title of the Manifesto. Let me know your suggestions!
Thank you for this list of writers.
Brava. I love your creativity, heart and fire and see the labour. Looking forward to seeing the ripples. 🧡